Old car parts transform 'green' home in Berkeley

Published
4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, April 18, 2001

The car ended up in the living room after a home in Berkeley was remodeled. Well, the parts of several cars, actually. In the Adeline Street Urban Salvage Project, Leger Wanaselja Architecture used discarded auto parts and recycled materials to remodel a 100-year-old house and adjacent shop.

The Adeline Street structure is among 10 projects being honored by the American Institute of Architects as design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. Awards will be presented Monday in Washington, D.C.

The urban lot was "densified" by jacking up the two-and-a-half story house and building a commercial space below, creating a compound of two street-level commercial spaces with two residential units above.

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Space originally chopped up into awkward attic rooms is now an open, sculptured residential space with views to the bay.

Benches and railings were fabricated from a colorful mix of truck tailgates.

Old redwood wainscot was reused for cabinet doors, and French vinegar bottles became pendant lamps. Discarded road signs satisfied code requirements for wall covering in a commercial bathroom. Countertops were made from slabs sliced from nearby storm-downed trees or terrazzo tile made of recycled glass.

During construction, Victorian trim, fixtures, windows and doors as well as old framing lumber were salvaged, sorted and restored. Where needed, new wood was sustainably harvested. The insulation is blown-in cellulose made from recycled newspapers and phonebooks, and the new foundation and first-floor slab are made with 25 percent fly ash, reducing the use of Portland cement.